Romario vs Bebeto: The political rift in Brazil has divided an unbeatable duo

Romario de Souza Faria He is 57 years old, has a successful past as a footballer and a present as a politician in Brazil for 13 years. Jose Roberto Gama de Oliveira He turned 59 on February 16 and again in 2010 he landed in the Brazilian political arc as the most followed sports idol in the world. They arrived at this new role together after that union that was sealed during the historic 1994 in which the Brazilian national team broke 24 years without winning the World Cup. But the political rift that also exists in the neighboring country has alienated them again, as in those professional beginnings in the 80s, when Romario was the idol of Vasco da Gama and Childthe star of Flamengo.

“Bebeto is a traitor. You betrayed me in politics. Jumped off the Branch There are things in life that I carry with me forever, in and out of politics. I see it every day, but when it happens with a guy you’ve lived with and have a friendship with, it’s sad. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is,” said Romario, who was elected senator by former president Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party in 2022 to represent the state of Rio de Janeiro for the next eight years, on the podcast Cheguei.

“Who is he to call me a traitor? Romario is getting old and I think he’s becoming sclerotic, saying a lot of nonsense. I have a career full of football and politics, I’ve never been involved in controversy. I can’t say the same about him, he’s selfish, he’s always thought of himself,” said Bebeto UOL. “I have not betrayed anyone. He has decided to support (Bolsonaro’s party). He betrayed me. Football and politics are made as a team and Romario always acts individually, he always thought only of himself” accused him who supports Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the current president of Brazil.

That football united, politics separated

Thirteen years ago Romario and Bebeto ran for elections in 2010. The first did it nationally and won the bench federal deputy of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) in the Congress of Brasilia, while the latter chose to remain in Rio de Janeiro and obtained his seat in the legislature of Rio de Janeiro through the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).

In 2014, after the World Cup which had seen them on opposite fronts (Romario was against the host Brazil and Bebeto was part of the organizing committee), who was a deputy, swept the election to senator for an eight-year term with the same PSB , while Bebeto achieved a second term in the Rio de Janeiro legislature, now with the Feast of Solidaritya new political force with centre-left ideology that emerged that year and which in 2022 was part of the coalition with which Lula Da Silva reached his second term as president of Brazil.

It was a new political party Candies, created in 2017 and with which Romario ran (unsuccessfully) for governor of Rio de Janeiro in 2018. In that election, however, Bebeto made his re-election prevail and faced his own third consecutive term in the Carioca Legislative Assembly.

Last year, already fully identified with the Liberal Party by Bolsonaro, Romario managed to remain a senatoreven with 29.19% of the votes, far from the more than 60% of eight years ago.

From rivalry to friendship: the evil duo

In the Seoul Olympics 1988, Brazil took the silver medal and had the tournament’s top scorer in Romario, while Bebeto had to be content with contributing his goals off the bench. They were already bitter rivals in Brazilian football: one was the idol of Vasco da Gama, the other shone at Flamengo.

or baixinho left Brasileirao to go play European football (and shine in Dutch PSV), while Bebeto has taken his place at Vasco da Gama, in every sense: He led the team to win its first Brazilian championship in 15 years and was the top scorer in the carioca championship, as well as being chosen as a South American footballer in 1989.

That year they met again in the Brazilian national team and they cut a 40-year drought in the Copa América. In Rio de Janeiro, with both in their footballing prime, the evil duo was formed, the one that five years later gave Brazil its fourth World Cup, the first since 1970.

But their off-court relationship didn’t change until several years later. She sharpened, in fact, during her first few seasons in Spanish football. Bebeto joined Deportivo de La Coruña in 1992 and Romario joined Barcelona in 1993 and it didn’t take long for them to become figures, exchanging the Pichichi trophy in 1993 and 1994. The media spoke of irreconcilable differences between Romario, who was considered a man of the night and womanizer, and Bebeto, the serious and exemplary man who invented the gesture of celebrating a goal by cradling a child (his) during the World Cup in the United States.

Maybe you live far from your homeland but in the same country e Personal circumstances they were the keys to uniting them; Just recall Bebeto’s excitement when she found out that Romario’s father had been released after a six-day kidnapping in Rio de Janeiro, or Romario’s support when the kidnappers turned a gun on Bebeto’s pregnant wife.

The beginning of the friendship that politics broke three decades later occurred in USA World Cup, to which Romario arrived due to the pressure exerted by Ricardo Texeira, the then president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, and also due to Bebeto’s dialogue with the coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who had decided not to call him up but relented after the victory against Uruguay in the Maracana for the qualifiers. He did so well that the Barcelona forward won the Ballon d’Or as the best player of the tournament and was subsequently chosen as the best player of the year by FIFA.

Their football and their synchronicity on the pitch have made them one of the most important duos in history. In the 23 official matches shared with his team, Brazil remained undefeatedwith 17 wins and 6 draws. Of the 48 goals scored in that period, both managed 33with 18 goals from Romario and 15 from Bebeto.

Already retired from football and before becoming politicians, they worked together at América in Rio de Janeiro in 2010: Romario was the coach and he hired Bebeto as DT, although he only managed to keep him in charge for a month. “I respect the decision and our friendship is above any professional situation“replied the one who was making his debut as a coach.

Thirteen years later, politics has achieved what the football rivalry has not achieved.